Jitish Kallat (b. 1974, Mumbai, India, where he continues to live and work)

 

Jitish Kallat’s works straddle the intersections of science, historical memory, existential inquiry, and the rhythms of the natural world, prompting reflections on our planetary presence and place in the cosmos. A consistent approach in Kallat’s practice involves shifting focal lengths—across space and time—to reframe and comprehend the immediate and the imminent.

 

Over the years, Kallat has developed a ‘vocabulary of studio rituals,’ mediated by natural elements, time, and the use of dates, measurements, numbers, and other archival materials as sense-making devices. His diverse body of work across media spans abstraction, schematic forms, historical texts, and varied modes of representation, often juxtaposing the everyday with the cosmic, the present with the historic, and the terrestrial with the celestial.

 

Jitish Kallat has held solo exhibitions at prominent institutions such as the Art Institute of Chicago, Art Gallery of New South Wales in Sydney, Frist Art Museum in Nashville, Ian Potter Museum of Art in Melbourne, Dr. Bhau Daji Lad Museum in Mumbai, and the Philadelphia Museum of Art, amongst others.

 

His mid-career survey, Here After Here 1992-2017, curated by Catherine David, took place at the National Gallery of Modern Art in New Delhi in 2017.  Kallat’s work has been exhibited at global institutions, including Tate Modern, London; Martin-Gropius-Bau, Berlin; Gallery of Modern Art, Brisbane; Kunstmuseum, Bern; Serpentine Galleries, London; Mori Art Museum, Tokyo; and Pirelli Hangar Bicocca, Milan. He has participated in the biennales of Venice, Gwangju, Havana, Curitiba, and Kiev, as well as the Fukuoka, Guangzhou, and Asia-Pacific triennials.

 

As the Curator and Artistic Director of the 2014 Kochi-Muziris Biennale, he curated Whorled Explorations. His other curatorial projects include I draw, therefore I think for SouthSouth in 2021, followed by Tangled Hierarch. at the John Hansard Gallery in Southampton and Tangled Hierarchy 2, presented by Kiran Nadar Museum of Art at the Invitations Programme of the 5th Kochi-Muziris Biennale in 2022.

 

2024

Antumbra, India Art Fair, New Delhi

 

2023

Whorled (Here After Here After Here), Somerset House, UK. Curator: Cliff Lauson

 

2022

Tangled Hierarchy 2, presented by Kiran Nadar Museum of Art as part of the Kochi Muziris Biennale 2022

Otherwhile, Chemould Prescott Road, Mumbai

Order of Magnitude, Ishara Art Foundation, Dubai. Curator: Sabih Ahmed.

Echo Verse, Templon, Paris

Covering Letter, John Hansard Gallery, Southampton UK

 

2021

Tmesis, Sperone Westwater Gallery, New York

Epicycles, Norrtalje Konsthall, Sweden. Curator: Helen Hedensjo.

 

2020

Return to Sender, Frist Art Museum, Nashville

Terranum Nuncius, Famous Studio, Mumbai

Terranum Nuncius, Bikaner House, New Delhi

 

2019

Phase Transition, Templon, Paris

 

2018

Decimal Point, Sperone Westwater Gallery, New York.

 

2017

Covariance, Galerie Templon, Brussels.
Here After Here (1992–2017), National Gallery of Modern Art, New Delhi. Curator: Catherine David.

 

2016

Covering Letter, Philadelphia Museum of Art. Curator: Amanda Sroka.

Covering Letter, Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Vastu Sangrahalaya, Mumbai. Curator: Kamini Sawhney.

Sightings, Chemould Prescott Road, Mumbai.

 

2015

Public Notice 2, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney. Curator: Suhanya Raffel.

The Infinite Episode, Galerie Templon, Paris.

 

2013

The Hour of the Day of the Month of the Season, Galerie Templon, Paris.

Epilogue, San Jose Museum of Art, USA. Curators: Susan Leask and Jodi Thockmorton.

 

2012

Circa, Ian Potter Museum of Art, Melbourne. Curators: Natalie King, Bala Starr and Andrew Jamieson.

Chlorophyll Park, Nature Morte, New Delhi.

 

2011

Fieldnotes: Tomorrow was Here Yesterday, Dr. Bhau Daji Lad Mumbai City Museum, Mumbai. Curator: Tasneem Mehta.

Stations of a Pause, Chemould Prescott Road, Mumbai.

 

2010

Public Notice 3, The Art Institute of Chicago. Curator: Madhuvanti Ghosh

Likewise, ARNDT, Berlin.

The Astronomy of the Subway, Haunch of Venison, London.

 

2008

Aquasaurus, Sherman Contemporary Art Foundation, Sydney.

Skinside Outside, Arario Gallery, Seoul.

Public Notice 2, Bodhi Art, Singapore.

Universal Recipient, Haunch of Venison, Zurich.

 

2007

Sweatopia, Chemould Prescott Road, Mumbai and Bodhi Art, Singapore.

Unclaimed Baggage, Albion Barn, London.

365 Lives, Arario Gallery, Beijing.

Rickshawpolis 3, Gallery Barry Keldoulis, Sydney.

 

2006

Rickshawpolis 2, Spazio Piazza Sempione, Milan.

 

2005

Rickshawpolis 1, Nature Morte, New Delhi.

Panic Acid, Bodhi Art, Singapore.

Humiliation Tax, Gallery Chemould, Mumbai.

 

2004

The Lie of the Land, Walsh Gallery, Chicago.

 

2002

First Information Report, Bose Pacia Modern, New York.

 

2001

Milk Route, India Habitat Centre, New Delhi.

General Essential, Sakshi Gallery, Bangalore.

 

2000

Ibid., Gallery Chemould, Mumbai.

 

1999

Private limited–I, Bose Pacia Modern, New York.

Private limited–II, Apparao Art Gallery, Chennai.

 

1998

Apostrophe, India Habitat Centre, New Delhi.

 

1997

P.T.O., Gallery Chemould and Prithvi Gallery, Mumbai.

2024

The Imaginary Institution of India – Art 175 – 1988, Barbican Art Gallery and The Curve, London

Fantastic Realities and Beyond: 30th Anniversary Show, organized by Centre of International Modern Art (CIMA) Art Gallery, Visual Arts Gallery, New Delhi

Splinter Puncture Silver Spall, TRI, Calcutta. Curated by Phalguni Guliani

Cosmography, Galerie Templon, New York City

What is Seen and Unseen: Mapping South Asian American Art in Chicago, South Asia Institute of Chicago, USA

Drawing Biennale 2024, The Drawing Room, London, UK

Regenerative Futures, Fondation Thalie, Brussels, Belgium. Curators: Nathalie Guiot and Yann Chateigné Tytelman

Home and the World, Museum Van Loon, Amsterdam, Netherlands. Curated by Thomas J. Berghuis

 

2023

Everybody Talks About The Weather, Fondazione Prada, Venice

A Demonstration of Ornamentation, Nature Morte, New Delhi

CheMoulding: Framing Future Archives: 60 Years of Gallery Chemould, curated by Shaleen Wadhwana, Chemould Prescott Road, Mumbai

 

2022

The First Contemporaries, Akara Art, Mumbai

Modus Operandi III: Together Alone, Chemould Prescott Road, Mumbai

Benefit Print Project: 12 Years of Multiple Making, Freedman Gallery at Albright College, Reading, PA, USA

Tangled Hierarchy, John Hansard Gallery at the University of Southampton, Southampton, UK

Asian Lantern: Correspondence, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney

 

2021

Presentation of the Contemporary Collection, Centre Pompidou, Paris

I draw, therefore I think, SOUTH SOUTH (online)

Art Unlimited, Basel

Lokame Tharavadu (The World is One Family), Alappuzha, organised by Kochi Biennale Foundation, Curator: Bose Krishnamachari

Markers of Time and Space, Nature Morte, New Delhi, India

Spring, Fondation Thalie, Brussels, Belgium

Confabulations, Nature Morte, New Delhi, Curator: Peter Nagy

 

2020

Chromatopia, Art Gallery of Southern Australia

South East North West, San Jose Museum of Art, Curator: Rory Padeken

Distorted Portrait, Space K Seoul

Visions from India, Columbia Museum of Art – Columbia SC, United States

 

2019

Our time for a Future Caring, India Pavilion at the Venice Biennale, Curator: Roobina Karode

Circadian Rhythms: Contemporary art and biological time, The Glucksman, Cork, UK. Curators: Chris Clarke and Fiona Kearney

Weather Report,  Aldrich Museum of Art, Curator: Richard Klein

Modus Operandi II: In-Situ: Artist Studio – Chemould Prescott Road, Mumbai

 

2018

Riots: Slow Cancellation of the Future, ifa Galleries, Berlin and Stuttgart. Curator: Natasha Ginwala.

Asymmetrical Objects, Dr. Bhau Daji Lad Mumbai City Museum. Curators: Tasneem Mehta and Himanshu Kadam.

Sculpture Park, Madhavendra Palace, Nahargarh Fort, Jaipur. Curator: Peter Nagy.

Asia Pacific Breweries Foundation Singapore Art Prize 2018 Exhibition, Singapore Art Museum, Singapore

Possibilities for a Non-Alienated Life, Kochi Muziris Biennale 2018, Curator: Anita Dube

New Presentation of Contemporary Collections, Musée National d’Art Moderne, Centre Pompidou, Paris, France

Vision Exchange: Perspective from India to Canada, Art Gallery of Alberta, and National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa, Curators: Catherine Crowston & Jonathan Shaughnessy

50 Years after 50 Years of the Bauhaus 1968, Württembergischer Kunstverein Stuttgart, Germany, Curators: Iris Dressler, Hans D. Christ

Modus Operandi, Chemould Prescott Road, Mumbai, India

 

2017

Age of Terror, Imperial War Museums, London. Curator: Sanna Moore.

India Re-worlded: Seventy Years of Investigating a Nation, Gallery Odyssey, Mumbai.
Curator: Arshiya Lokhandwala.

A World in the City: Zoological and Botanic Gardens, ifa Gallery Stuttgart. Curator: Kaiwan Mehta.

Horses in the Air, Vadehra Art Gallery, New Delhi, India

Visions from India, Pizutti Collection, Columbus, OH, United Nations

 

2016

Given Time : The Gift and Its Offerings, Gallery Odyssey, Mumbai. Curator: Arshiya Lokhandwala.

Setouchi Triennale, Takamatsu, Japan. Curator: Fram Kitagawa.

Art from Elsewhere: International Contemporary Art from UK Galleries, Arnolfini, Bristol. Curator: David Elliott.

Telling Tales: Excursions in Narrative Form, Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney.
Curator: Rachel Kent.

Sacred and Profane, Art Gallery of Western Australia, Perth. Curator: Robert Cook.

Deconstruction–Reconstruction, Art & Public, Geneva.

The Eye and the Mind: New Interventions in Indian Art, National Gallery of Modern Art, New Delhi, India

 

2015

After Midnight: Indian Modernism to Contemporary India 1947/1997, Queens Museum, New York. Curated by Dr. Arshiya Lokhandwala.

After Utopia, Singapore Art Museum. Curators: Tan Siuli and Louis Ho.

A Summer Mix, Chemould Prescott Road, Mumbai, India

Obsession, Maison Particulière, Brussels.

Postdate: Photography and Inherited History in India, San Jose Museum of Art.
Curator: Jodi Throckmorton.

 

2014

Busan Biennale 2014–Inhabiting the World, Busan. Artistic Director: Olivier Kaeppelin.

An Appetite for painting. Contemporary painting 2000–2014, Museum of Contemporary Art,
The Museum of Contemporary Art Architecture and Design, Oslo. Curator: Gavin Jantjes.

St. Moritz Art Masters, Robilant+Voena, St. Moritz, Switzerland

DAS 2014, Dhaka Art Summit, Dhaka, Bangladesh, Curator: Diana Campbell Betancourt

When Violence becomes Decadent, Freies Museum, Berlin, Curator: Shaheen Merali

 

2013

Curitiba Biennial, Curitiba. Curators: Stephanie Dahn Batista, Angelo Light, Deborah Santiago, Kamilla and Renan Araujo Nunes.

Ideas of the Sublime, Vadehra Art Gallery, New Delhi. Curator: Gayatri Sinha.

Aesthetic Bind | Citizen Artist: Forms of Address, Chemould Prescott Road, Mumbai.
Curator: Geeta Kapur.

Palindrome: Gilbert & George and Jitish Kallat, ARNDT, Singapore.

Highlights of Modern and Contemporary Art, Vadehra Art Gallery, New Delhi, India

Young Collectors, Maison Particuliere, Brussels, Belgium

When Violence becomes Decadent, Acc Gallerie Weimar, Germany, Curator: Shaheen Merali

Mapmakers II: The Evolution of Contemporary Indian Art, Aicon Gallery, NY, United States

 

2012

Arsenale 2012: The First Kiev International Biennale of Art, Kiev. Curator: David Elliott.

India: Art Now, ARKEN Museum of Modern Art, Ishøj.

Critical Mass: Contemporary Art From India, Tel Aviv Museum of Art. Curator: Tami Katz-Freiman and Rotem Ruff.

Indian Highway, Ullens Center for Contemporary Art, Beijing. Co-curated by Julia Peyton-Jones, Hans-Ulrich Obrist, and Gunnar B. Kvaran in collaboration with Philip Tinari.

Narratives of the Self, Gallery Escape, New Delhi, India

Migration, ARNDT, Berlin, Germany

 

2011

Boundaries Obscured, Haunch of Venison, NY City, United States

Paris – Delhi – Bombay, Centre Pompidou, Paris, France

Pause: A Collection, Sakshi Gallery, Mumbai, India

Roots in the Air, Branches Below: Modern and Contemporary Art from India, San Jose Museum of Art, CA, United States

Car Fetish: I Drive, Therefore I Am, Museum Tinguely, Basel. Curator: Roland Wetzel.

Maximum India, Kennedy Center for Performing Arts, Washington D.C. Curators: Alicia Adams and Gilda Almeida.

Watercolour, Tate Britain, London. Curator: Alison Smith.

Indian Highway IV, Musée d’art Contemporain, Lyon. Curators: Julia Peyton-Jones, Hans-Ulrich Obrist, Gunnar B. Kvaran in collaboration with Thierry Raspail.

 

2010

Monumental, Walsh Gallery, Chicago, United States

“La Route de la Soie” (The Silk Road), Tri Postal, Lille, France

Collection Show 2010, Arario Gallery, Seoul, South Korea

Now Through a Glass Darkly, Arario Gallery, New York, United States

Changing the World, ARNDT, Berlin, Germany

Clouds: Power of Asian Contemporary Art, Soka Art, Beijing, China

Gallery Collection, Sakshi Gallery, Mumbai, India

Bring Me a Lion: An Exhibition of Contemporary Indian Art, Cecille R. Hunt Gallery, St. Louis, United States, Curator: Dana Turkovic and Jeffrey Hughes

Metropolis, The New Art Gallery Walsall, UK.

Finding India–Art for the New Century, Museum for Contemporary Art, Taipei.

Skulptur I Pilane, Pilane Burial Grounds, Tjorn, Sweden. Curator: Peter Lennby.

Indian Highway, HEART Herning Museum of Contemporary Art, Denmark. Curators: Julia Peyton-Jones, Hans-Ulrich Obrist and Gunnar B. Kvaran in collaboration with Stinna Toft.

Urban Manners 2: Contemporary Artists of India, SESC Pompeia, Sao Paulo.
Curator: Adelina von Fürstenberg.

The Empire Strikes Back: Indian Art Today, Saatchi Gallery, London.

 

2009

India Contemporary, Gemeentemuseum Den Haag. Curator: Willem Baars.

Mythologies, Haunch of Venison, London.

Chalo! India: A New Era of Indian Art, Mori Art Museum, Tokyo and Essl Museum, Vienna. Curator: Akiko Miki.

Art Foundation Mallorca Collection, Centro Cultural Andratx, CCA Andratx.

Passage to India Part II, Initial Access–Frank Cohen Collection, Wolverhampton.

Indian Highway, Astrup Fearnley Museum of Modern Art, Oslo. Curators: Julia Peyton-Jones, Hans-Ulrich Obrist, Gunnar B. Kvaran

Indian Narrative in the 21st Century: Between Memory and History, Casa Asia Headquarters, Madrid and Barcelona, Spain

INDIA XIANZI: Contemporary Indian Art, Museum of Contemporary Art, Shanghai

All That Is Sold Melts Into Air: Indian Contemporary Art in Global Times, Lakeeren Gallery, Mumbai, India

16 Years of Running a Gallery, Walsh Gallery, Chicago, United States

Arario’s Finest: Celebrating 20 years of Arario Gallery,  Arario Gallery Cheonan, South Korea

 

 

2008

Farewell to Post-Colonialism: Third Guangzhou Triennial, Guangdong Museum of Art, Guangzhou. Curators: Gao Shiming, Sarat Maharaj, and Chang Tsong-zung.

Indian Highway, Serpentine Galleries, London. Curators: Julia Peyton-Jones, Hans-Ulrich Obrist, Gunnar B. Kvaran, Thierry Raspail.

Die Tropen: Views from the Middle of the Globe, Martin-Gropius-Bau, Berlin. Curators Alfons Hug, Dr. Peter boy, Prof. Dr. Viola King.

India Moderna, Institut Valencia d’Art Modern, Valencia. Curator: Juan Guardiola.

Chalo! India: A New Era of Indian Art, Mori Art Museum, Tokyo. Curator: Miki Akiko.

Body Chatter, Walsh Gallery, Chicago, United States

Expanding Horizons, Bodhi Art Gallery, Mumbai, India, Curator: Sudhir Patwardhan

Everywhere is War (And Rumours of War), Bodhi Art Gallery, Mumbai, India

Frontlines: Notations from the contemporary Indian Urban, Body Berlin, Germany, Curator: Shaheen Meerali

New Narratives: Contemporay Art from India, Jane Voorhees Zimmerli Art Museum, New Brunswick, United States

New Narratives: Contemporay Art from India, Salina Art Center, Salina KS, United States

 

2007

Soft Power: Asian Attitude, Shanghai Zendai Museum of Modern Art. Curators: Biljana Ciric, Huangfu Binghui, Shen Qibin.

Urban Manners, Pirelli HangarBicocca, Milan. Curator: Adelina von Fürstenberg.

Hungry God, Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto.

Aftershock, The Sainsbury Center for Visual Arts, Norwich. Curator Yasmin Canvin.

Horn Please, Kunstmuseum Bern. Curators: Bernard Fibicher, Suman Gopinath.

Thermocline of Art–New Asian Waves, ZKM | Museum of Contemporary Art, Karlsruhe, Germany. Curator: Wonil Rhee, Peter Weibel and Gregor Jansen.

December Group, Gallery Barry Keldoulis, Sydney, NSW, Australia

Asia – Europe Mediations, IF Museum Inner Spaces, Poznan, Poland

 

2006

The 6th Gwangju Biennale, Korea. Curators: Kim Hong-hee, Wu Hung and Kim Sang-yun.

The 5th Asia-Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art, Brisbane, Australia.

Passages, Palais des Beaux Arts, Brussels. Curators: Deepak Ananth and Jany Lauga.

Lille 3000, Lille, France. Curator: Caroline Naphegyi.

Hungry God: Indian Contemporary Art, Arario Gallery, Beijing, and the Busan Museum of Art, Korea. Curator: Yun Chaegab and June Gwak.

L’Art à la Plage, Galerie Enrico Navarra, Ramatuelle, France.

 

2005

First Pocheon Asian Art Triennale, Pocheon, Korea. Curator: Yoon Jin Sup.

Indian Summer, Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts, Paris. Curators: Henri Claude and Deepak Ananth.

The Artist Lives and Works in Baroda/Bombay/Calcutta/Mysore/ Rotterdam/Trivandrum, House of World Cultures, Berlin.

Paths of Progression, Singapore Tyler Print Institute, Singapore

Mom and Pop, Walsh Gallery, Chicago, United States

 

2004

Zoom! Art in Contemporary India, Culturgest, Lisbon. Curator: Nancy Adajania and Luis Serpa.

Contemporary Art from India, Thomas Erben Gallery, New York

Summer Show, Bose Pacia Gallery, New York

 

2003

SubTerrain: Artists Dig the Contemporary, House of World Cultures, Berlin. Curator: Geeta Kapur.

Pictorial Transformations, National Art Gallery, Kuala Lumpur.

Crossing generations: diVERGE, National Gallery of Modern Art, Mumbai. Curators: Geeta Kapoor and Chaitanya Sambrani.

Indians+Cowboys, 4A Center for Contemporary Art, Sydney. Curators: Aaron Seeto, Ruth Watson.

The Tree from the Seed, Henie Onstad Kunstsenter, Høvikodden, Norway. Curator: Gavin Jantjes and Henie Onstad Kunstsenter.

Hard Copy, a two-person show with Reena Saini Kallat, Gallery 88, Kolkata. Curator: Peter Nagy.

 

2002

Under Construction, The Japan Foundation, Asia Center, Tokyo. Curator: Ranjit Hoskote.

India – Contemporary Art from Northeastern Private Collection, Jane Voorhees Zimmerli Art Museum, New Jersey. Curator Jeffrey Wechsler.

 

2001

Century City: Art and Culture in the Modern Metropolis, Tate Modern, London. Curators: Geeta Kapur and Ashish Rajadhyaksha.

Indian Painting, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney. Curator: Haema Sivanesan.

Palette 2001, Palette Art Gallery, New Delhi, India

 

2000

Seventh Havana Biennale, Havana, Cuba. Curator: Hilda Maria Rodriguez.

 

1999

The First Fukuoka Asian Art Triennale, Fukuoka Asian Art Museum, Japan. Curator: Kuroda Raiji.

 

1998

Art of the World 1998, Passage de Retz, Paris.

 

1997

Innenseite, Projektgruppe Stoffwechsel, University of Kassel, Germany. Curator: Hamdi El Attar.

50 Years of Art in Mumbai, National Gallery of Modern Art, Mumbai. Curator: Saryu Doshi.

Kallat’s work can be found in a number of public and private collections including:

 

Arario Museum, Seoul

Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney

Art Gallery of Southern Australia, Adelaide

Art Institute of Chicago

Bihar Museum, Patna

Birmingham Museum, Birmingham

Boca Raton Museum of Art, United States

Brooklyn Museum, New York

Burger Collection, Hong Kong

Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris

Centre of Contemporary Art, Mallorca

Centre International Modern Art (CIMA), Calcutta

Deutsche Bank, Mumbai

Devi Art Foundation, New Delhi

Fondation Thalie, Brussels

Fukuoka Asian Art Museum, Fukuoka City

Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney

Guggenheim, Abu Dhabi

Ian Potter Museum of Art, Melbourne

Initial Access Frank Cohen, Wolverhampton

Ishara Art Foundation, Dubai

Kiran Nadar Museum of Art, New Delhi

Kunsthalle Praha, Prague

M+, Hong Kong

MixC, Shenzhen

Museum of Art and Photography, Bangalore

Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles

National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa, Ontario

National Gallery of Modern Art, New Delhi

National Museum of Asian Art, Smithsonian Institution, Washington DC

New Art Gallery Walsall, Walsall

Nita Mukesh Ambani Art and Culture Centre, Mumbai

Philadelphia Museum of Art

Piramal Museum of Art, Mumbai

Pizzuti Collection, Columbus

Rubell Family Collection, Miami

San Jose Museum of Art, San Jose

Sherman Contemporary Art Foundation, Sydney

Sigg Collection, Switzerland

Singapore Art Museum

Space K, Seoul

The Saatchi Gallery, London

Tiroche DeLeon Collection, Israel

Vanhaerents Art Collection, Brussels

Victoria and Albert Museum, London

Whitworth Art Gallery, Manchester

Zabludowicz Collection, London